name changing question

I know there are always lots of posts floating around about name changing, but I am wondering about something and maybe you girls have an answer.

I am really torn about giving up my last name, but at the same time want to take his. I don't want to hyphenate because that gets to long and confusing. I know some people keep their maiden names as a second middle name or second last name, right? Well how do you do this? Do you need to go to court to get it legally changed? How do you sign the marriage certificate if you are doing this?

I like this idea because then I still have my maiden name but also share a name with FH.

Re: name changing question

As far as I know if you want to legally change your middle name you have to go down to town hall first.

Re: name changing question

I added my maiden name as my middle name. Officially, in New York your marriage license does not change your middle name. It just changes your last name.

There are various opinions about how to change your middle name legally. Some people say that if Social Security accepts your new middle name you're good, but others say you have to get a court order to change it legally. I had to eventually get a court order because even though Social Security accepted it and only required a marriage certificate, DMV didn't and required a court order. So I thought it was best to get a court order so I can be sure that everything is legal. It wasn't hard to do it - it just took a long time, about 2 months.

I did all of this in Manhattan. It might be a different time frame elsewhere. Good luck!

Re: name changing question

it's ironic that you are asking this as I've been talking about this a lot recently...it's kind of a family tradition that the wives use their maiden name as their middle intial. so I'll be Tricia L. newlastname. I'm not hypenated or anything like that, I'll just be using it as my middle intial.

Re: name changing question

I think alot of people do this unofficially.